1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved vibration correction system for a camera, and more specifically to a vibration correction system capable of correcting the effects of extremely small vibrations and vibrations caused by hand-holding the camera.
2. Description of the Related Art
JP-A-3-110530 [Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication 03-110530] discloses a vibration correction system for a camera. In this known system, a correcting lens, constituting a portion of the photographic lens, is driven by a drive motor. A reduction gear train is used to reduce the speed of the rotation of the motor and to convert the reduced rotation into linear motion. A shift member causes a shift of the correcting lens in a direction orthogonal to the optical axis. Image deflection, originating from vibration and the like of the camera, is prevented by judiciously shifting the correcting lens. A photointerruptor is arranged on the last gear of the reduction gear train to detect the amount of movement of the correcting lens. After the correcting lens has been driven, it is reset to a predetermined standard position based on the output of the photointerruptor. However, because the photointerruptor detects the amount of rotation of the final gear of the reduction gear train, it is in fact detecting the most reduced amount of rotation as the amount of drive of the correcting lens. Therefore, the resolving power of this known vibration correction system is too low to precisely correct for small vibrations. Further, it is difficult, if not impossible, to accurately reset the correcting lens to a standard initial position after the vibration correction operation.
There exists a need for an optical vibration correction system capable of accurately correcting the effects of small vibrations and having enough resolving power to determine the exact location of the correcting lens.